Cover Letter

Applicants are encouraged to include a cover letter with the application. The cover letter is only for internal use and will not be shared with peer reviewers. The letter should contain any of the following information that applies to the application:

1. Application title.

2. FundingOpportunity (PA or RFA) title of the NIH initiative.

3. Request of an assignment (referral) to a particular awarding component(s) or Scientific Review Group (SRG). The PHS makes the final determination.

4. List of individuals (e.g., competitors) who should not review your application and why.

5. Disciplines involved, if multidisciplinary.

6. For late applications include specific information about the timing and nature of the cause of the delay.

7. When submitting a Changed/Corrected Application after the submission date, a cover letter is requiredexplaining the reason for the Changed/Corrected Application. If you already submitted a cover letter with a previous submission and are now submitting a Changed/Corrected Application, you must include all previous cover letter text in the revised cover letter attachment. The system does not retain any previously submitted cover letters until after an application is verified.

8. Explanation of any subaward budget components that are not active for all periods of the proposed grant.

9. Statement that you have attached any required agency approval documentation for the type of application submitted. This may include approval for applications $500,000 or more, approval for Conference Grant or Cooperative Agreement (R13 or U13), etc. Two types of approval documentation are cited as examples in item 6 above: NIH IC approval for an application $500,000 or more and NIH institute approval for a Conference Grant or Cooperative Agreement application (R13 or U13). To attach the approval documents to this submission, please append those referenced documents to your Cover Letter File, and upload as one attachment.